Motion sensitive elements of precision instruments such as micromechanical gyroscopes and accelerometers are easily damaged by high acceleration loads which cause element excursions beyond the normally encountered limits. These loads may induce element jamming of one or more resilient components, introducing an unknown error.
Micromechanical devices have features that are measured in microns, and even entire transducers can be as small as 1000 microns across. On such size scales, the fabrication of motion limits becomes a difficult task.
The silicon material of which micromechanical devices are formed is prone to intersurface contact sticking, due to the extremely low mass of typical moveable elements in such devices. The sticking is sufficient to jam a movable element against a bordering surface. This results in transducer inoperativeness which, if undetected, can result in unacceptable error.
Extreme motions of the movable elements can also induce strains in the resilient restraints such as flexures. These strains produce a bias in the instrument which can also lead to unacceptable error.